Who loved best? Was she Goneril, Regan or Cordelia? Oh Cordelia! Your unspoken love Lear couldn’t feel. You didn’t flatter your father, but fought your wicked sisters to win back your father’s land. You refused to color your feelings, as you were honest and virtuous, unlike your greedy and cruelContinue Reading

After William Shakespeare’s “The Tragedy of Macbeth” (Act 5, Scene 5, lines 17–28) His hour upon the stage Was a tale well told Full of love and meaning Signifying everything. Time should stop When one so special no longer is. The sun should not rise Nor the moon shine. ButContinue Reading

Repeated lines are from Cordelia in King Lear by William Shakespeare Time shall unfold what plaited cunning hides. Ask Richard Nixon, “Who erased the tape?” Who cover faults, at last shame them derides. They’re often drowned by elemental tides while telling lies to make a clean escape. Time shall unfoldContinue Reading

as the crow-flowers tickle and the nettles prick her remembrances. she is a river of dream purpling the shadows of overhanging branches as, mermaid-like a while, she buoys herself up with flow and flight, no more the awkward baggage of a boy with clanking ghostly chains for brains. Kate Falvey’sContinue Reading

Across the western plain silence travels one unsteady foot at a time staggering, twisting, forward until even the birds stop their noisy chatter to watch his coming. The thirsty earth’s dry tongue avoids the travel- weary feet, licks at the pathway puddles but is not satisfied. Silence comes. Still. ShakespeareContinue Reading

He came to us in that odd way A feline knows– A porch seat empty, An opened can of tuna on the step His mind, a cat’s mind, simply seeking warmth and food. This feral creature did not know the generosity of a back rub, the safety of a lap.Continue Reading

Words are symbols of other things. This word tree lacks real bark. Fundamentalists, dogmatists, literalists, densely misperceive a direct relation, an inviolable link, between some sole mental concept, inspired by a word, and an actual thing. There is no literal truth. A will never equal C, much less be. WordsContinue Reading

SHADOW: Why hast thou summoned me once more from peaceful slumber?WILLIAM: I, summon thee? Surely you jest for ne’er once have I summoned thee. Thou appeare’st from torpid shadows to test mine patience, a fickle figment of mine craft and nothing more.SHADOW: Nay I say, nay. ‘Tis thy craft thatContinue Reading